Monument record 447/1 - Watling Street Roman Road (Margary Routes 1e & 1f)

Watling Street was one of the major Roman roads which linked Dover with Wroxeter, via Canterbury, London, St Albans and Towcester. This section of the road runs through Northamptonshire from Stony Stratford in the south to Lilbourne in the north.

{1} Correspondence about Dr J.Alexander's record of the presumed earlier line of Watling Street through Towcester; plans.

{2} Watling Street, Stoney Stratford to Towcester ie. Route 1e. And Towcester to High Cross ie. Route 1f.

{3} Towcester developed on either side of Watling Street, the Roman road which ran from south-eastern England to the north west of the country. In the Roman period the road from Alchester and Dorchester entered Towcester at the south-western corner and joined Watling Street just north of the present Park Street. It has been suggested that the intersection of these two early military routes may have been the main reason for the siting of the town.

Whilst the general course of Watling Street is reasonably well understood its specific course through Towcester is still somewhat uncertain. The present road changes alignment twice, first at Silverstone Brook and then at the River Tove but it has been suggested that the results of the Park Street and Allens Yard excavations indicate the Roman road originally ran further to the west, only later being realigned. Irrespective of its precise route, Watling Street was the primary road through the town around which the rest of its communications networked developed during the later first and second centuries AD.

(Ref 1.0) Riden concludes: ‘Both in the Middle Ages and later Towcester was for the most part a one-street town, with most of its principal houses standing on one side or the other of Watling Street. The lanes which branched off Watling Street either had no building on them or only secondary development at the back end of plots fronting Watling Street.

{8} Description of 2.6km section of Watling Street to the north west of Crick (SP5796 7125) - one of the few lengths of the road that have never been followed by a modern paved road.

{9} Watling Street runs along the alignment of the contemporary A5 trunk road. Built soon after the Roman Conquest of 43 AD it linked the south-east of the country to the north-west. Its current name is derived from the Old English meaning a paved road, Waecelinga Straet. The line of the road currently forms the parish boundary between Northamptonshire and Warwickshire immediately west of the development site.

{15} WATLING STREET; Roman road, RR 1f (Margary), Towcester - High Cross. For full details including bibliography and OS field investigator comments see Ordnance Survey Linear Archive file (RR 1f), held at NMRC.
TL13000784 to SP69194867 Watling Street from St Albans to Towcester (see linear archive for details).

{16} A 2.5km stretch of the Watling Street Roman road running north-west from SP5795471281 (just north of the intersection of the M1 motorway and Kilsby Road) to SP5673773505 (where it intersects with the A5) is a Scheduled Monument. It is scheduled as Watling Street Roman Road (List Entry Number 1412692).

<1> Woodfield C., 1999, Correspondence, (part checked) (Letter). SNN43431.

<2> 1973, Margary 1973, p.173+183-87 (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN4901.

<3> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Laughton J.; Steadman S.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester, 3.6, 1.0 (checked) (Report). SNN103132.

<4> JONES C., 2005, An Archaeological Excavation, Watling Street Byway, Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN105998.

<5> RPS CLOUSTON, 1994, Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT): Archaeological Evaluation (Appendices), (checked) (Report). SNN70454.

<6> RPS CLOUSTON, 1994, Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT): Archaeological Evaluation, (checked) (Report). SNN106052.

<7> Clay P.; Courtney P.; Cooper L., 1996, An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment and Survey for The Salcey to Deanshanger Pipeline Duplication, Phase 3, (unchecked) (Report). SNN62532.

<8> Brown, A E and Hannan, A, 1978, Watling Street and the Gartree Road: some work on two Roman roads in Northamptonshire., 13/87-8 (checked) (Article). SNN112177.

<9> Williams S., 2010, Night Owl Truck Stop, Watling Street, Rugby: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, p.4 (checked) (Report). SNN109621.

<10> Richards J., 2013, Rye Hill, Watford Gap: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, (unchecked) (Report). SNN109596.

<11> RPS Consultants, 2001, Daventry: DIRFT Phase 2, Environmental Statement, (unchecked) (Report). SNN102487.

<12> John Samuels Archaeological Consultants, 2006, An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment of Land at 147 Watling Street, Towcester, Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN105760.

<13> Seland H., 2012, Engineering History and Heritage: A Norwegian Roadmaster's 1838 Tour of Britain and Beyond, (unchecked) (Article). SNN109956.

<14> Butler A., 2007, Geophysical survey at 'Bannaventa', Whilton Lodge, Northamptonshire April 2006, (unchecked) (Report). SNN108025.

<15> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Linear File, Ordnance Survey Linear Archive file (RR 1f and RR1e) (Notes). SNN112996.

<16> Scheduled Monument Notification (Note). SNN113001.

Record last edited

Feb 10 2025 7:13PM